People often enjoy sunshine and fresh air by resting at a beach or on a lawn on a sheet of some kind. The sheet serves to keep insects and other small pests that may be present in the underlying ground from bothering the user, and generally provides a defined comfortable surface that can be easily kept relatively free of sand, grass clippings, and other ambient irritants. Unfortunately, open spaces are subject to breeze and wind gusts that can lift and sometimes even carry the sheet away from the user's chosen arrangement—especially when the user has temporarily moved away. This is a well-known problem, for which many solutions of varying but limited effectiveness are known.
One solution is to use a fairly thick or padded sheet, with the expectation that this will be difficult for at least a moderate breeze to carry away. The inevitable associated problem is that such a sheet is bulky, heavy and uncomfortable for most users to carry for any significant distance. This is especially true where the selected beach is accessible only over difficult terrain, e.g., at the bottom of a steep cliff or across large sand dunes. There is also the risk that it might become even heavier if there is a sudden downpour of rain. A thick or heavy sheet is also inherently difficult to wash and dry.
Another solution is to place heavy objects at the corners and at intermediate points on the periphery of a lightweight sheet, to weigh it down and thus secure it against wind-caused displacement. While weights like shoes and loaded backpacks are usually available, their use as ballast tends to create an unsightly array of the user's possessions, transfers dirt from items like shoes to the sheet, and reduces the area actually available for the user to occupy comfortably. A variation of this solution is to pile on sand or place stones, whichever is available, at the corners and sides of the sheet to weigh it down. This solution is not much better than the use of one's belongings as ballast.
A need therefore exists for a quickly and easily secured, inexpensive, lightweight sheet that a user can securely locate to comfortably rest on, is equally usable on a beach or a lawn, does not blow away even in a fairly strong wind, can be comfortably carried, easily washed and dried, can be readily recognized on a busy beach, that inherently clears itself of sand and light debris even in a light breeze, and can be easily retrieved even when the user has to cope with sudden wind gusts or a rain squall. Any anchoring means employed to secure such a sheet on location must be very easy to use, effective under foreseeable conditions both at a beach and on a lawn, not likely to hurt the user in normal use, not liable to damage the sheet either during use or during washing thereof, and comprise only elements not likely to get separated from the sheet except when the user so desires, e.g., to wash the sheet in a conventional washing machine with other items that may be relatively fragile. This comprehensive need is fully met by the present invention.